Culinda Inc
Safeguarding Health by Securing Devices

It’s a well-known fact that healthcare organizations forming a maze of interconnected lifesaving biomedical devices with integrations into electronic medical records and ancillary systems have come under the radar of hackers who constantly attack and actively attempt to disrupt patient care and steal patient data. Since these medical devices have turned out to be a soft spot for hackers and ransomware authors, it is imperative to safeguard them, for the safety and privacy of patients.

“The cybersecurity threat in the healthcare environment is as real as it can get. Biomedical devices can be partially crippled or shut down entirely, by hackers, which can result in wrong treatments drastically affecting patient safety. The traditional IT solutions are not equipped to protect these devices from hackers who can compromise medical devices, access the data and or manipulate its functionality,” explains Uma Mahesh Reddy, COO of Culinda. With a combined experience of more than 90 years in the healthcare industry, Culinda has introduced an artificial intelligence-based platform and security gateway, which secures biomedical devices from cyber-attacks 24x7.

Reflecting on the mounting challenges faced by the healthcare industry, Reddy points out that hackers are capable of manipulating medical devices, changing their configuration, and causing the malfunction of medical devices. In some cases, hackers can cause medical devices to perform unwanted actions such as delivering the wrong dosage. Also, the chances of devices becoming heavily damaged or encrypted due to ransomware are at an all-time high. Adding to these woes, the financial loss stemming from these attacks is a massive setback for any healthcare organization.

Against this challenging backdrop, Culinda covers the entire lifecycle of biomedical devices, from pre-purchase to the disposal of the device. The company, Culinda, is well aware of what a device should or shouldn’t be doing, how it should behave and be configured to remain secure. Reddy elaborates, “Our product inventories, categorizes, and rapidly analyses the behavior of the device via our AI platform. The platform manages monitors, and secures medical devices from malicious threat.”

Culinda covers the entire life-cycle of biomedical devices, from pre-purchase to the disposal of the device

With years of knowledge assimilated from hospital operations and fueled by experts in medical device manufacturing and cybersecurity, the Culinda team understands all the intricacies of devices used across healthcare systems and hospitals. To this end, they have perfected their AI platform to understand how a device functions, its behavioral pattern, and alert when an unidentified command or anomaly is detected. Culinda’s AI platform not only provides security but also foresees the kind of attacks a device might be subjected to. In case of an attack, a report is sent to the clinical engineering or security teams that work toward eliminating the threat without having to turn the device off or interrupt its service, as the first line of defense.

A major vanguard of Culinda is its capability to bring information technology, data security, operational technology (clinical engineering), clinical team (patient care team) and manufacturer together into one eco-system in supporting bio-medical devices. Besides, Culinda assures that healthcare organizations do not need to upgrade to new devices just to secure them. “In one case, an organization that was ready to spend a large sum to secure their devices by upgrading to new devices and infrastructure, managed to secure their existing devices by using Culinda and saved over $800,000,” says Reddy.

While Culinda’s history of success continues, this rapidly growing company is heavily focusing on bridging the gaps that are present in biomedical devices, asset management, and governance, risk and compliance. In the days to come, Culinda aims to introduce a comprehensive platform that will eliminate the reliance on many third-party tools.